


The Wolves and the Ravens

by omaidoggo



Series: The Valhalla Academy AU [3]
Category: ONEUS (Band), ONEWE (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern with Magic, Angst, Fire, Flashbacks, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Guns, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Military Academy, Minor Character Death, Minor Violence, Nightmares, Non-Graphic Violence, Past Character Death, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, References to Norse Religion & Lore
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-07
Updated: 2020-10-23
Packaged: 2021-03-06 20:07:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 15,472
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26340889
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/omaidoggo/pseuds/omaidoggo
Summary: Dongju's first semester at Valhalla Academy has begun, and like every student he's already feeling stressed by the workload. To make matters worse, Ravn's gone missing, and the feud between Seoho and Leedo has only escalated from there. Just where is Ravn? And why are his hyungs at each other's throats?
Relationships: Kim Geonhak | Leedo & Kim Youngjo | Ravn, Kim Geonhak | Leedo & Lee Seoho, Son Dongju | Xion & Everyone, Son Dongju | Xion & ONEUS Ensemble, Son Dongju | Xion & Son Dongmyeong
Series: The Valhalla Academy AU [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1880152
Kudos: 16





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hi! This doesn't require you read the other two works in the series to be understood, but it is the first major plot-focused fic in the series. Anyway, enjoy!

The introductory homework should have been incredibly easy -- if only the wolves outside would _shut up_. Dongju pulled a pillow over his ears and went back to studying the runic words on his index cards, but even the soft, thick material wasn’t enough to muffle out the howling. If only he had noise-cancelling headphones or something, maybe he’d stand a chance on concentrating.

The insufferable noise continued long after he’d finished with the index cards, the reading for magical theory, his getting-ready-for-bed routine. He tossed and turned in his bed, pressing his pillow to his head, and -- just like before -- it didn’t help.

It seemed like the wolves had been howling like this every night since he arrived, but he knew this wasn’t true if Seoho’s “scientific notes” had anything to say about it. (“It actually happens every Wednesday night!” he could hear his hyung chirp.) Not that he’d gone _snooping_ or anything. Okay, maybe he had snooped a little bit that one time Hwanwoong and Keonhee had planted a whoopee cushion in Seoho’s bed -- but it hadn’t been hard to miss. His notes were literally hanging on the wall. If he’d wanted it to remain a secret, he would’ve stashed it away in some journal or something, right?

Whatever. Keonhee had already fallen asleep somehow if his legs kicking against the wall was any indication, and knowing how intensely Hwanwoong worked, well, he was probably out like a rock. Dongju huffed, rolling on his back, arms over his head. Maybe one day he’d get used to it, but for now, he’d make do with resting his eyes.

Dongju barely made it through morning exercises -- and from the looks of it, half the Academy was feeling the same way, all muttering the same word: wolves.

“I swear, those wolves…”

“Wolves kept me up all night.”

“Please, not another semester of this wolf crap. Thought they’d get rid of them.”

“I heard one of the Bifrost Dorms teams tried to last year -- didn’t work.”

Bifrost Dorms? Like, his dorms? Someone snickered, and his blood began to boil.

“Obviously. How does a team screw up that badly?”

He bit his lip as they passed by. There was no use making a scene in the locker room, over _rumors_ no less. He wasn’t even sure they were talking about his hyungs either, after all, there were like, what, four or five teams in the Bifrost Dorms? For all he knew, they could’ve been talking about any of them.

“Hey, Dongju?”

He turned. It was just Dongmyeong.

“You ready?”

“Yeah,” he replied, running a towel through his hair one more time before stuffing it in his gym bag. They hurried out the locker room to the main courtyard where Giwook was already waiting for them, and with the three of them together they began their trek up one of the main hall’s many towers to Magical Theory 110.

“Ugh, but seriously, those wolves last night,” Dongmyeong managed to huff out between steps. “I couldn’t sleep at all!”

“I know right?” Dongju mumbled in reply.

“They did stop howling around 4 am though,” Giwook added. Dongmyeong looked at him and scoffed.

“Of course you’d know that. What were you working on last night?”

“Mmm, nothing.”

The three ended up being too tired to bicker the rest of the way up the tower, and after class and some free lunch in the main hall (he could’ve sworn they always had free lunch), they decided to head back to the dorms to catch some sleep before Runescribing 101. As they went over the hill that descended into their little nook near the woods, what seemed to be a paper nailed -- yes, _nailed_ \-- to the courtyard post caught their attention. Not that Dongju had the energy to run over and check what it was: unfortunately, curiosity could not trump sleep deprivation.

Getting closer, he could finally make out the bold, red letters on the paper. They crowded around the post, blinking away the dryness in their eyes.

**MONTHLY COMBAT EVALUATION**

Every last Wednesday of the month

Come armed and ready to the Training Grounds at your dorm’s scheduled time

Bifrost Dorms: 5:00 P.M.

Classes will be excused

YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE TO MAKE UP A MISSED EVALUATION

Dongmyeong grumbled, kicking at the ground.

“I thought I was done with monthly evaluations.”

“Looks like we really can’t escape the trainee life after all, huh?” Giwook laughed. Dongju rolled his eyes. Maybe the gravity of the whole thing would dawn on him later, but right now he really couldn’t care less. He slinked off to his dorm. Sleep first: stress later.

And stress later he did. While he wasn’t completely lucid attending Runescribing, or even during their free dinner (how’d they always have free dinner too?), evening training certainly woke him up. With lucidity came realization, and realization, panic.

It certainly didn’t help that the Coach was reminding them all about it too.

“Alright warriors, the evaluation might be three weeks away, but those three weeks you will need to prepare!”

The Coach marched to and from his place in front of the first years, glancing at them every now and then with a steely gaze.

“Now you may be thinking:‘Coach! I can’t fight! I can’t even jab a spear into a dummy yet!’ And you know what, you’re right. You won’t even be able to properly fight even during the evaluation. But you’ll still be a hell of a lot better than before, and we’re gonna measure your abilities.”

Dongju shifted uncomfortably.

“Now some of you might also be thinking: ‘Coach! What about my Gifts? They haven’t manifested yet! What if I don’t have any?’ Trust me, if you didn’t have any, you’d be _dead_ , and you all know how fun that is, right?”

An awkward giggle hummed through the crowd. The Coach stopped in the center, his tall, burly figure casting a lumbering shadow over them as he smiled.

“But really, you all have Gifts. They might not be here right now, but give it a week or two and they’ll start popping up. All we gotta do is break you in. Anyways-”

The Coach went on about the evaluation, something about it being mostly holistic and to expect bruises and maybe a few broken bones that they’d definitely take care of, and Dongju wanted nothing more than to scramble away. The Coach had said not to worry about not being able to fight or even his Gifts, but he still couldn’t help but do just that. This was unlike anything he’d done before: maybe Dongmyeong and Giwook were holding up better… They were probably used to the stress, being former trainees and all.

“Alright, with that out of the way, let’s warm up and review our technique.”

After the structured class, Dongju hurried over to his hyungs’ favorite training plot to find Hwanwoong and Keonhee already in the middle of a spar. Keonhee suddenly disappeared, and Hwanwoong walled himself in four light spikes only for Keonhee to dive in from atop, crashing through one of the walls and onto the ground. Dongju called out to them, and, exchanging waves, ran over to join them on the plot.

“Our hyungs?”

“Looking for Ravn,” Keonhee said, helping Hwanwoong off the ground and dusting him off. Hwanwoong grumbled, stretching his neck.

“Which means the three of us will be sparring all evening _again_ while they go goof off somewhere else because _technically_ they should have graduated.”

“Woongie, don’t be like that,” Keonhee said, “they’re trying their best.”

“Yeah, but have we ever been able to find Ravn when he’s skipped?” Hwanwoong asked, raising an eyebrow, holding a shrug. Keonhee didn’t respond. Hwanwoong shook his head and sighed as he walked over to the fence, picking up a spear.

“Xionie! Catch.”

Dongju caught the spear Hwanwoong tossed to him, Keonhee sweeping his own off the ground before they moved to face each other on the training plot. Hwanwoong stood to the side.

“Alright, you know the rules.”

“Oh no, it’s not like it’s already been a week since the semester started,” Dongju snapped. Hwanwoong rolled his eyes.

“Okay sassy kid, you sure you ain’t all bark and no bite?”

“Don’t worry,” Keonhee called, smiling, “I won’t use my Gifts.”

“Thanks hyung,” Dongju scoffed. Hwanwoong rolled his eyes again, and held up an arm.

“Ready?”

Dongju grit his teeth and tightened his grip around his spear.

“Go!”

He lunged. Keonhee stepped back, thrusting his spear, Dongju’s spear sliding along it to the side. He stumbled as he pulled it back, Keonhee walking back into starting position. He adjusted his grip and thrust at his shoulder. Keonhee leaned to the side, Dongju growled as he brought the spear back and lunged.

His spear slid along Keonhee’s again and fell out of his grip as Keonhee knocked it away. A dull thud hit his shoulder, sending him stumbling backward before another hit his chest. The wind rushed out of him as he hit the ground on his back. Another thud on his chest. He blinked, and there was Keonhee, standing on him, spear at his throat, and smiling.

Keonhee stepped off his chest, offering a hand which Dongju readily took. He brushed off his arms, and Keonhee stepped behind to pat the dirt off his back.

“Sorry ‘bout that.”

“You’re fine,” Dongju said, turning his head over his shoulder as if he could actually see if he had actually been cleaned up. “You didn’t have to hold back, you know.”

Keonhee scratched the back of his neck.

“Well it’s not fair, your Gifts haven’t manifested yet.”

 _I wasn’t talking about that_ , Dongju wanted to say, but he kept his mouth shut -- he knew Keonhee didn’t mean any harm. But that did remind him...

“Right so,” Dongju began, “when Coach said ‘breaking in,’ he didn’t mean it, like..?”

“Oh, no,” Keonhee laughed as Hwanwoong came over to join them, “he just kinda talks like that.”

“Yeah, I wouldn’t worry about it,” Hwanwoong chipped in, lightly elbowing Dongju. “As long as you’re training and stuff it should come naturally.”

“Really?”

“Really. I was playing in the park when mine did.”

Dongju raised an eyebrow, though he decided not to pry. Keonhee suddenly patted him on the arm.

“It’s okay if your Gift doesn’t come right away. Seoho and Ravn had some that didn’t manifest until last semester!”

Which prompted another eyebrow raise. Not that the answer to any of his unspoken questions really mattered, but, even without the answers, he found their clumsy reassurances, well, reassuring. Hwanwoong clapped and rubbed his hands together.

“Right, so, onto round two! You guys ready?”

“Hold on!”

The three turned at the gruff call to see Leedo and Seoho jogging over. Dongju grabbed Keonhee’s hand.

“Ow! Xionie!”

“Ah, sorry,” Dongju gasped, dropping his grip as Keonhee shook his hands, sucking his teeth. As Leedo and Seoho approached, Hwanwoong took it upon himself to step up, arms folded over his chest as he glared at them.

“So, where’s Ravn?”

“Dunno,” Leedo mumbled, “Would’ve kept looking, but this _hyung_ here thought it was a waste of time.”

“Because it is,” Seoho retorted. “He’s perfectly capable of defending himself -- our energy then is better spent helping our _dongsaengs_.”

“So much for the power of friendship,” Hwanwoong sneered. Leedo jerked his head over.

“ _You stay out of this_.”

“How can I?” Hwanwoong cried. He pointed at Keonhee and Dongju, and Dongju couldn’t help but lean in closer to Keonhee. “You guys keep _abandoning_ us!”

“It’s only been a week-”

“Hwanwoong, Leedo…” Seoho whispered.

“You did this last semester too!”

“Hwanwoong!”

Hwanwoong turned to Seoho. With a warning glare from Seoho, Hwanwoong closed his mouth. Dongju could tell he wasn’t happy about it, but the sheer cold emanating from Seoho kept him quiet too. He shivered.

“We’re here now. Now, Woong, Keonhee, let’s work on your Gifts.”

“Actually,” Dongju mumbled, and somehow everyone heard because they all turned to him. He looked at Seoho, away from Leedo. “I… I was wondering if you could help me, since you had a late Gift, if that’s okay with you and everything.”

Seoho blinked, but with a single glance in Leedo’s direction and Dongju knew his hyung understood.

“Of course,” he said, and the iciness melted into a smile. “Leedo-ya, go help them with technique.”

Without even looking -- he didn’t dare look -- he could feel Leedo collapsing inward, a silent understanding established between him, Dongju, and Seoho as he quietly submitted, and walked off to fetch a spear from the fence. Dongju’s heart clenched. Even though Hwanwoong and Keonhee patted his shoulder, even though they nodded in reassurance before going back to training, even though clearly everyone understood, it didn’t help at all.

“Dongju-ya, it’s okay, no need to feel bad.”

Dongju shook out of his thoughts, biting his lip as he watched Seoho levitate a shield toward them.

“I know I shouldn’t…”

“Your reason is valid.”

He didn’t know exactly _which_ reason Seoho was referring to, but before he could think any more deeply, Seoho bumped his arm, and smiled.

“Now, let’s get to work.”

Evening training ended, and the five walked back to their dorm in awkward silence. Dongju followed after Hwanwoong and Keonhee, not before noticing Seoho pull Leedo aside. Seoho waved his hand: _go inside_. Nodding, Dongju closed the door behind him, went to his room, and began his homework while his hyungs showered and got ready for bed.

Thankfully, the wolves were silent tonight. Today’s homework was proving a little more difficult than usual, though whether that was because of sleep deprivation or an actual escalation of the course material, he couldn’t tell. By the time both Keonhee and Hwanwoong were done showering, he’d gotten through half the reading without absorbing any of the information. He sighed. Maybe a shower would do him good.

Dongju came out of the bathroom fully expecting to just resume his reading -- well, it was more like skimming at this point -- in peace, albeit awkward peace, but peace nonetheless. For the most part, the rest of the night followed his expectations. He managed to finish his reading, and was just about to pull out his index cards for review when Hwanwoong poked his head over the top bunk.

“Hey, Xionie? Wanna come down here for a sec?”

“I always come down when I talk to you,” Dongju replied matter-of-factly. Hwanwoong pursed his lips.

“We’ll see who’s laughing at practice tomorrow,” he sneered, “but seriously, come down.”

Hwanwoong’s head vanished as he slunk back down, and Dongju soon followed, climbing down the ladder to find both him and Keonhee sitting on the bed. Keonhee patted the space between them, and Dongju compliantly plopped down on the spot.

“So… What’s up?”

Keonhee slipped his hand into his, their fingers entwining as Dongju turned to Hwanwoong who wouldn’t stop looking at the ground. Hwanwoong sighed.

“Just, um, sorry about today. I didn’t mean to, you know…”

“It’s fine,” Dongju replied.

“What he _means_ to say is he’s sorry he chewed out our hyungs in front of you,” Keonhee finished as Dongju turned to him. “But he doesn’t regret the actual scolding part of it all.”

“Okay, you got me there,” Hwanwoong said, folding his arms and shaking his head, pouting. Dongju bit his lip, holding back a laugh -- he seemed to do that often around the two. Hwanwoong sighed again. “But really, sorry about our hyungs. You don’t deserve to get pulled into all their drama and stuff.”

“It’s fine, really,” Dongju replied. As much as it made things awkward, it was something he’d have to accept, being a part of a team and everything now. Even then, it was a little irresponsible of their hyungs to just… leave them all the time.

“Yeah, but it’s not fair to you,” Keonhee said, letting go of his hand and hugging him from behind. Dongju looked at Hwanwoong, whose gaze was still fixed on the ground, and took his hand.

“Well, it doesn’t seem fair to you guys either.”

“Right?” Hwanwoong managed to chuckle, tightening his grip around Dongju’s hand. “They won’t even tell us what’s going on.”

“Wait,” Dongju began, furrowing his brow. “You guys don’t even know what’s happening?”

Keonhee squeezed Dongju tighter as Hwanwoong shook his head.

“They really didn’t tell us anything at all. They just kinda, you know, glare at each other and then pretend everything’s fine when they’re with us. Ravn’s the only one that’s still nice after… last year, but he’s always gone.”

Dongju nodded before letting his head fall back onto Keonhee to give him a pat without letting go of Hwanwoong.

“Keonhee, are you crying?”

“No…” he sniffled. Hwanwoong chuckled for real this time before leaning on Dongju’s shoulder.

“Sorry for dumping all this baggage on you.”

Dongju squeezed his hand tighter.

“It’s fine. But if our hyungs are still gonna be like this, we’ll just have to stick together more, right?”

“Xionie,” Keonhee whimpered, and Dongju only just noticed how wet his shoulder had gotten. He sighed, leaning further into Keonhee.

“Call me Dongju.”

Hwanwoong turned his head to look at him.

“Really?”

“Really,” Dongju replied, “I mean, I don’t really see a point in using Xion. Ravn just kinda called me that when we met, so I figured you guys just knew me as that? It’s just weird.”

Besides, he was adding a lot of his… own secrets into the mix. This was probably the only one he was happy to let go of. Hwanwoong hummed, and Dongju could just see the gears in his head whirring.

“Dongju. Dongdong? Our baby maknae Dongdongie~”

“If you’re gonna be like that, I might revoke your privileges.”

“You can’t just do that!”

Dongju lifted Hwanwoong’s hand up to his mouth, teeth bared before Hwanwoong yelped, pulling away. Hwanwoong screamed at Keonhee, demanding he stop crying and help him with this _wild maknae_ and soon Keonhee was laughing and crying as they wrestled on the bed then on the floor much to Dongju’s protests but they all knew it was a joke.

When the morning trumpet sounded the next day, they awoke to find themselves in a pile on the ground, and laughed.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AIGHT  
> Hi!  
> hope you enjoy this chapter! it's super unbeta'd but everyone's really busy with school lol. thank you for reading!

Dongju got through his Friday classes and evening training without, fortunately, getting wrapped up in the awkward silence that settled itself heavily in the dorm. It probably helped that Seoho and Leedo had suddenly decided to go grocery shopping together, weirdly, leaving him alone with Hwanwoong and Keonhee to get into whatever shenanigans they so pleased. Admittedly, they didn’t have any energy to get into too much trouble -- thus they found themselves trying to decide which drama they wanted to marathon tonight (Legend of the Blue Sea came out on top at Dongju’s insistence) before deciding to invite Dongmyeong’s team. Dongju got out his phone and called.

“Hey, what do you want?”

“Wow, rude,” Dongju scoffed, “and here I was about to invite you to watch drama with us.”

“Well sorry  _ I guess _ ,” Dongmyeong laughed from the other side of the line. “No, but really, sorry. My team’s busy with something, I gotta help out, you know?”

“Gotcha. Good luck.”

“Tha-”

Dongju hung up, smirking to himself as he shoved the phone back into his pocket, his small little prank. Sure, it was kinda disappointing Dongmyeong couldn’t join them, but hey, life happened. Besides, they were together for morning exercises, classes, lunch, sleepovers, weekends -- the point being they spent enough time together as is. 

“What’d he say?” Keonhee asked. Dongju shrugged.

“He’s busy.”

“Gotcha.”

They snuggled closer to each other on the couch, and soon Hwanwoong emerged from their room carrying his laptop and a blanket, Keonhee’s Ryan plushie floating behind him. Keonhee swiped his plushie from the air, Hwanwoong rolling his eyes as he coddled it, throwing the blanket over both him and Dongju much to Keonhee’s protest. They started to bicker, or something -- Dongju wasn’t really paying attention. Before long, the lights were off, the drama was up and rolling, and the three of them were all cuddled up together on the couch.

Episode one and two finished, and Dongju had to wonder just what kind of grocery trip took more than two hours. The sun had long since set, and while his hyungs were fully capable of fending for themselves, they  _ were _ just two guys. Then again, maybe their biggest threat was each other. Anyway, it wasn’t any use to worry.

Howling. Howling in the courtyard.

Hwanwoong and Keonhee jumped to their feet, sending Dongju toppling to the cold, wood floor. A painful thud spread dully over his arm -- another bruise to add onto the ones from training -- but iced over, freezing him, his thoughts.

Howling? Wolves? But it wasn’t Wednesday.

“Keonhee, Leedo’s closet.”

Keonhee nodded before disappearing into their hyungs’ room, leaving Dongju alone in the living room with Hwanwoong holding out his hand, finger to his lips.

“Stay. Put.”

The howling stopped, but the silence was more excruciating than its timbre. Dongju dared not breathe, even as he took Hwanwoong’s hand up from the ground, as if the air would shatter if he did. They waited like this for who knows how long, until Keonhee returned, spears in hand. The runes inscribed on their heads hummed.

Hwanwoong took two, handing one to Dongju. As he wrapped his fingers around the cold stone shaft, the runes began to glow, blue, the humming now in his veins. His breath trembled in his chest.

“Okay, everyone, stick together. The three of us could probably take a wolf down.”

Exchanging looks, the three nodded, tightened their grips around their spears, stalked toward the door, and opened it.

There were no wolves in sight. There was only the night breeze brushing over the grass, the poppies, the runestones along the path leading back to campus casting a faint blue glow like those on their spears. And just a bit farther from their vision was Dongmyeong and Giwook fiddling around with a laptop and speaker.

Hwanwoong straightened from his crouch, the tension completely leaving his shoulders, and Dongju could see both the relief and anger in the sigh that followed. Keonhee turned to him.

“What?”

“Look!” Hwanwoong spat, pointing. He whipped over to Dongju. “What the hell is your twin doing?”

That was a great question that Dongju had no answer to. Just what was Dongmyeong doing? And was this what he meant by his team was busy? Because unlike hanging up suddenly, this was more than just an inconvenience at best -- they were literally up in arms for goodness sake.

Dongju shoved past his hyungs and made his way to the little patch of grass Dongmyeong and Giwook had made their little headquarters of mischief. Dongmyeong turned up to him as he approached, eyes wide and hands up in the air, waving in denial.

“Dongju! This isn’t what it looks like!”

“ _ This _ is what you were doing?” Dongju hissed, pointing the spear at the speaker. Dongmyeong kept shaking his head.

“I promise this isn’t what it looks like.”

“This isn’t funny,” he said, “did you seriously think this was a good prank?”

“That’s the thing, this isn’t a prank,” Giwook interjected, staring at Dongju. “We’re actually doing this on Hyungu’s orders.”

“ _ Orders? _ ”

“Woah woah woah, what’s going on?” Hwanwoong called, waving his arms as he approached. Keonhee soon followed.

“It wasn’t from the forest?”

“Guys, this is a huge misunderstanding,” Dongmyeong exclaimed, holding his hands out in front. “Hyungu had this huge freaky fit after training today and told us to play these recordings. I have no idea why and I have no idea how he found out we had these in the first place.”

“A fit?” Dongju furrowed his brow and turned to his hyungs to see if they were just as confused as he was. Turns out, they weren’t. In fact, they eased up, whatever tension left in them pouring out of their bodies, even if Keonhee was still stealing glances around the courtyard. Hwanwoong sighed, nodding.

“Well, if Hyungu told you to do it, I’m not gonna question it.”

“Where’s Harin?” Keonhee asked. Giwook shrugged.

“Making rice porridge.”

The howling started again, louder, more distinct, this time from the forest. Hwanwoong and Keonhee readied their spears, and a quick nudge from one of them reminded Dongju to do the same.

“Giwook! Do the thing!”

“What thing!?”

“Your recording!”

The speaker blared, the howling cries from the real wolves drowned out by the sheer volume. Dongju winced against the noise. He fought to keep his eyes open, his spear in his grip, pointed toward the forest.

Branches trembled near the sky. From behind them footsteps stumbled toward them, a hand placed itself on Dongju’s shoulder.

“He’s coming,” Hyungu said, catching his breath. Dongju’s grip tightened, ready for whoever  _ he _ was. The branches rustled again, the howling from the speaker amped to deafening heights competing with the growing boldness of the wolves, the breeze picked up, unnaturally pulsing as the familiar call of Seoho and Leedo’s voices -- having just returned -- fought over the noise-

A winged silhouette emerged against the moon. It lingered for only a moment before disappearing back into the shadows, getting closer, closer.

Wind rushed past and Dongju dug his feet into the dirt with spear braced in front of him as if it could shield him from the blast. The gust subsided -- and when he opened his eyes he saw Ravn, crumpled in a heap.

Leedo and Seoho landed and ran to his side, their groceries left forgotten in the grass. They lifted him up, and Hyungu pulled them to his dorm, listing off the things he had prepared: a washcloth, some rice porridge, a makeshift bed on the couch…

“I’m guessing you guys can stop now.”

With Hwanwoong’s inference, Giwook scrambled to the laptop, and the sound from the speakers suddenly cut off, though the residue still stuck to their ears. Oddly enough, the howling from the forest stopped as well. The low ringing slowly betrayed the silence that graced the night -- beautiful silence now after that ordeal. Dongju hardly noticed the spear slip from his hand.

Rocks flew as the spear tip hit the ground. Dongju took a step back, Dongmyeong taking his hand. Keonhee swept it off the ground, brow furrowed as he looked back up at him.

“Dongju-ah, be careful!”

“Sorry, hyung,” he mumbled.

“It’s fine,” Keonhee started, “I mean, maybe I can’t say that since it’s technically Leedo-hyung’s, but…” He let out a whine. “I don’t want him to get mad.”

It wasn’t hard to picture why -- and so Dongju said nothing in reply as Hwanwoong and Keonhee started walking back to the dorm with the spears they hadn’t needed, completely disregarding the groceries scattered everywhere on the grass. He sighed. Guess he could be useful for something.

“Hey, is everything alright?”

“Yeah,” Dongju grumbled to Dongmyeong as he bent down to pick up the bags. Of course, he was lying: there were a lot of things wrong right now to say the least, even if he couldn’t quite name them all. But… first and foremost was this...

“Sorry, Myeongie.”

“No, don’t be,” Dongmyeong said, starting too to pick up the groceries. “I didn’t tell you what was happening.”

“Yeah, but-”

“No buts.” He stood back up, several bags in his hand. “Right, let’s get these inside. Giwook?”

“Laptop, speakers.”

“Right. See you back at the dorm.”

When the groceries were all put away and the reason for Giwook having a recording of the wolves explained (he thought he could use it for a song later), Dongmyeong bid Dongju goodnight and returned to his dorm. Of course, Dongju wished Dongmyeong had stayed, and when Dongmyeong asked him if he was sure he’d be fine, Dongju lied -- again -- and let him go. He was needed back at his dorm. They had another body there after all.

Well, at least the Ryan plushie found its way to his bunk. He glanced over at Keonhee’s bed, found him shuffling in his covers trying his best to act asleep, and smiled.  _ Thanks, hyung _ .

Morning came, and with it, the smell of something sweet flowing through warm air. Dongju couldn’t pinpoint what it was exactly, nor could he think of anyone who’d be cooking -- well, except for maybe Keonhee, but he was still sound asleep. He rubbed at his bleary eyes before climbing down from his bed, setting Ryan back in its owner’s arms, and walking out to the kitchen.

Leedo, of all people, was at the stove wearing an apron, a pile of pancakes forming on the plate beside him as he poured more batter onto a skillet. As far away as he was, Dongju could still make out the concern woven into his eyebrows, tensed in his arms and shoulders, distracting his gaze that was evidently trying to focus on the task at hand. He was stiller than a statue, if that was even possible.

Dongju’s first instinct was to slink away, as he usually did. Leedo looked like he wanted to be alone to process, well, everything. Besides, he didn’t need breakfast anyway…

Leedo turned around.

Oh.

“Xion?”

“Morning, hyung,” he said, wondering how in the world he got the words out and whether or not they were as shaky as he thought they were. He quickly moved his gaze to the plate. “Pancakes?”

“Y-yeah,” Leedo stammered, “Seoho and I just wanted to, um, apologize I guess. To you guys, I mean, since we’ve been, y’know.”

“That’s… actually really nice.”

“It’s nothing,” Leedo said, sliding the last of the pancakes onto the plate before carrying it to the table. He opened the fridge and pulled out a few jars of jam from last night’s grocery run, setting them down before tossing some silverware next to the plate. “Um, enjoy.”

Dongju bowed, but he didn’t think Leedo saw it. He rushed out the door -- odd. The apron he was wearing didn’t seem to be left anywhere either.

A while passed in silence as he picked at the pancakes, waiting for the lump in his throat to clear so he could open it adequately. There was too much to process. His eyes felt like they would burst from how crammed his head was.

Keonhee emerged from the hallway, carrying Ryan. His eyes widened.

“Dongju! Pancakes?”

“Leedo-hyung made them, said he and Seoho wanted to apologize.”

“Ah, I see,” Keonhee hummed, setting Ryan down on the couch before grabbing a plate and taking a seat at the table. “Mmm, American breakfast.”

“What about it?”

“It’s my favorite kind of breakfast.”

“Didn’t know that.”

“Yeah, no one really knows.” He picked up the jar of strawberry jam, smiling as he examined the label and started trying to twist open the lid. Dongju swiped it from him, ran it under hot water, and returned it, Keonhee saying a quiet thank you before continuing. “Leedo’s the only guy that pays attention to that kind of stuff.”

“Oh?”

“He’s the one that normally cooks. Guess we haven’t really sat down for a homemade dinner together since you came, huh?”

Now that he thought about it, yeah. They normally just grabbed something at the cafeteria after training -- it was free, somehow, after all -- and even those meals were awkward at best… what with Seoho and Leedo.

No, he wasn’t going to think about it right now. They were getting better, hopefully.

“Maybe we’ll have one again, soon.” Keonhee sighed with a smile, looking absently at the ceiling like he was daydreaming.

The door creaked open, and Seoho slipped inside. He turned to the kitchen, smiled and waved.

“Morning.”

“Good morning!” Keonhee sang, “How’s Ravn?”

“He should be alright,” he said, the worry that should have been in his voice evident in the bags under his eyes. They quickly scanned the kitchen. “Ah, Leedo made the pancakes like I asked. Hope you like ‘em.”

“I do,” Keonhee called. Seoho offered another smile, and with that he stumbled into the hallway. Dongju’s chest sank.

“Dongju, what’s wrong? You should eat.”

“I’m not hungry.”

_ Stop pretending everything’s okay. You know as much as I do it’s not. _ He wasn’t sure if he was telling Keonhee that, or himself. He looked down.

“I wanna see Ravn, actually.”

Even if that meant he’d run into Leedo again. Keonhee’s eyes seemed to flicker, and he nodded.

“If it makes you feel better. I’ll save some pancakes for you, I promise.”

Outside, the morning air was still fresh and cold with dew clinging to grass. The sun hadn’t yet peeked over the surrounding mountains, leaving the courtyard brushed with a faint blue. It was here that Dongju paced, wondering if he really should go see Ravn. Well, yes, of course he should see Ravn -- why wouldn’t he? Was Leedo’s presence really going to stop him? At some point, Dongju would have to stop avoiding him. In fact, it was a miracle he’d somehow gone this long without holding an actual conversation with Leedo despite living together (though, now that he thought about it, he hadn’t really spoken to his roommates back at the university before, well, this). It wasn’t like Leedo was malicious, even if he was relatively hostile toward Seoho. From the way he spoke to Dongju, even from their first meeting, Dongju knew Leedo was afraid of breaking him, like he instinctively knew he was afraid of him. Dongju knew he wouldn’t ever hurt him -- not intentionally -- nor would he ever burn him with his Gift.

Burning.

_ No _ .

He brushed his fingers against the ground. Cold, wet, grass. He could do this. He’d go visit Ravn, Leedo or no. It was the least he could do for his hyung.

Dongju marched to Dongmyeong’s dorm and knocked. Silence, then Leedo at the door, eyes wide and mouth agape. His gaze dropped as he bowed his head.

“Xion, you… I can take care of this.”

“I just wanna visit,” he replied, slipping through into the dorm. Leedo stood frozen at the door. A glance at him, and Dongju could see the worry, the fatigue more clearly in his eyes. “Are you okay?”

Leedo nodded again. Dongju nodded in turn before kneeling by Ravn’s makeshift bed, moving his hair away and putting the back of his hand to his forehead.

Ravn didn’t have a fever, thankfully, but his face, already so slim, had become gaunt, pale. At least he was breathing still, albeit thinly. He wasn’t going to die. Thank the heavens he wasn’t going to die, but Dongju felt his heart clench regardless.

“I’m sorry.”

Dongju kept his eyes on Ravn, his hands slipping into his lap and grasping each other tightly.

“What are you sorry about?”

“It’s my fault he’s like this.”

He paused.

“I should’ve… I should’ve stopped him, or gone with him. Then all this… this wouldn’t have happened.”

“You’re apologizing for the wrong thing then,” Dongju mumbled under his breath, half-hoping he’d hear. “Go home and sleep or something. You sound tired.”

He could hear Leedo starting to object, but like the day before, he submitted. Dongju didn’t dare watch him as he trudged to the door, took one more glance at Ravn, and left.

For a while he sat in silence. He was alone now -- only his thoughts accompanied him. And they swirled inside, like a torrent. So this was where Leedo’s loyalty lay, in Ravn, Ravn alone. What happened between them all to create such a divide? And why, why had Ravn gone, alone, to the forest, without telling any of them where he was or what he was doing?

Why was he placed here, with them?

Dongmyeong shuffled in from behind, rubbing his eyes. He looked back and forth around the dorm.

“Where’d your hyungs go?”

“Back to the dorm,” Dongju said, “I… I think I should take care of Ravn from here.”

“Ah, good.” Dongmyeong sighed, and plopped down next to Dongju, shoulder to shoulder. “Your hyungs stayed up really late, watching him, you know.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah. Told the rest of us to go to sleep and stuff.”

He leaned his head onto him.

“I’m really glad they’re your hyungs. They seem to take good care of each other.”

If only he knew.

The weekend passed with a lot of shuffling back and forth between the fridge, the stove, and the couch where Ravn lay -- but by Monday Ravn was back at their dorm. He chirped happily on about his studies, some runes he found in the forest, the Valkyrie, all of it having something to do with Gifts or something. While the others seemed perturbed, Dongju was just glad he was back, healthy, happy, and with them, even if his chattering was bordering on madness at this point. Monday, Tuesday, even Wednesday, Ravn was there, helping all of them, whether it be doing a three-way spar between Seoho, Leedo, and himself, helping Hwanwoong and Keonhee refine their Gifts, or even quizzing Dongju on his reading, he was there, taking care of them.

And so Dongju and Ravn were in the kitchen, Dongju rigorously copying down the new vocabulary from Runescribing homework, Ravn watching over him and praising his penmanship, when the wolves began to howl. Dongju clenched his jaw, pressing down perhaps a little too hard on his pen as he scribbled down his notes.

The chair squeaked along the floor as Ravn stood. Dongju looked up at him.

“Is something wrong?”

“My friends.”

“You’re not planning on going out,” Dongju chuckled nervously, “are you?”

But his eyes were already glazed over, as if entranced, and his body was pulled toward the door, one step at a time. Dongju leapt to his feet.

“Hyung, don’t leave.”

“I… I have to… find...”

The door flung open, and Ravn stepped through, out into the cold spring night. Dongju ran out to catch him, but by the time he’d bolted to the porch, all that was left were two, black feathers.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you again for reading! sorry it took so long to update, uni's kicking my butt.  
> as of publication, i'm also going back to edit a few things in the first chapter. yes, everyone's relationships hurt right now but it's gonna get better i prOmiSE  
> hope you enjoyed! <3


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hello again! i tried my best to approach the mental health issues sensitively, but if it trivializes/romanticizes it too much, please call me out. this chapter is also unbeta'd -- forgive me for mistakes!  
> cw // fire, guns, nightmares, ptsd symptoms

_ Smoke billowed from the kitchen before crashing down on his failing frame. He couldn’t breathe. He couldn’t breathe at all. He blinked away tears from his eyes, felt the flames lick them away along with the skin on his bones. Where was Hwanwoong? Keonhee? Seoho and Leedo? Had they gotten out? _

_ A dark figure stood in the hall: Ravn. His catlike eyes pierced through the smoke, pierced through his heart. Dongju reached toward him, crying, begging him to get out, to save himself. Ravn turned back toward the rooms. _

_ “My friends.” _

_ The hall extended impossibly into the darkness, and Dongju could only scream as Ravn vanished to meet certain death. He couldn’t stop him. He couldn’t stop him… _

_ Only the blinding light accompanied him. _

When time blinked in and out of focus, the lights were always too bright, the noises too loud and the air too cold. Days passed -- he felt it in his drying, hurting eyes -- yet in between moments of lucidity, only seconds elapsed between now and the night his mind edged closer to forgetting, yet never quite reached. In a rare moment of remembrance there was yelling, a constricting feeling in his chest, and barking, panicked orders. There were black wings shielding him from the sun, his feet being swept off the ground, and endless apologizing reverberating from the touch he had sworn would scorch him. And he remembered crying, apologizing back, as if mere words could make up for all the things he couldn’t do.

Ravn was gone -- and Dongju had been powerless to stop him, powerless to keep the one thing holding the team together from staying long enough for everything  _ to fix itself _ .

There was a reason he hated dwelling on his thoughts, a reason he pushed them away, pulled them back before they wandered too far. More than fire, his thoughts froze him in place. They spun his head around, ran in and out his lungs until his hands shook, swung at his legs and brought him to the ground. They rendered him useless in his own body. Useless.  _ Useless _ .

He wasn’t doing anything for his team. He hadn’t done anything for them since the day he set foot in this damned Academy. All he’d done was take from those who had no more to give, and watched with a single bottle of water in hand as they crumbled like buildings set ablaze.

A soft plush pressed against his arm, then a second, and a third, followed by a blanket to drape them all. The door shrieked, the earth shook under several footsteps, and then, silence.

“Dongju? Dongju-ah!”

Dongmyeong half-whispered his greetings as he clambered up the bunk and plopped down beside him. Dongju lightly groaned upon impact, his arms tightening around the plushies to keep them from flying off. He should’ve been happy Dongmyeong was here, yet…

“Hey, you awake?”

“Mhm.” He couldn’t see it, but he could feel Dongmyeong’s eyebrow raise as he examined him, trying to find the words to say. A long moment passed before he said anything, and Dongju braced himself against the words he wasn’t sure he was ready to hear, nor respond to.

“W...what is that frog plush?”

“Hm?”

“You’d never pick out something that ugly.”

Dongju lifted open an eye to take a good look at the plushies he had only brought to himself blindly. There was Ryan, Simba, and- was that Pepe? Like the meme? The thought barely registered before Dongmyeong plucked it from his arms. Dongju didn’t whine. It… it was too tiring to whine.

Another long moment. At the lack of a response, Dongmyeong placed Pepe back in Dongju’s arms, arms that made no effort to scoop him back toward his body. The silence, the stillness -- Dongmyeong sighed.

“Hey, Ju-ah,” he whispered, his soft voice nearly breaking into a whimper, “I’m here.”

“I know.” But he was unsure they made it out his mouth.

There was a pause, then, gentle pressure as Dongmyeong laid down, slipped his arms under and over him, and nestled his head into Dongju’s shoulder.

They laid there like that for a while: no words, no movement, only the soft press and release of breathing against each other, himself. It was… nice. Nice, slow, serene. No demands, no expectations, simply being. And he was being -- here -- with Dongmyeong.

He found the will to smile at his hyungs’ plushies.

“Myeongie?”

“Mmhm?”

“Thanks.”

Dongmyeong mumbled something like acceptance, clearly struggling against sleep. Dongju didn’t blame him -- it was warm and soft here, though he had to wonder whether his arm had fallen asleep or not. He supposed they could spare some time.

They hadn’t slept long, but it was probably the most restful sleep Dongju had in, well, a while. Together, they sat up, shuffled around, rubbed their eyes, the usual thing to shake the grogginess out of their system before adjusting to sitting cross-legged atop the mattress, blanket draped over their laps. Fortunately, Dongmyeong had had the foresight to close the door when he had entered, and the two were left alone to chat quietly about… whatever they were about to talk about.

“So…”

“Hyungu told me,” Dongmyeong admitted quickly. “I’m… I’m sorry for not being there for you.”

“No, it’s fine.”

“No, it’s not.” His hands fidgeted with the Simba plush. “I’m your brother, I should’ve known better than to leave- to ignore my instincts.”

_ It doesn’t matter now, _ Dongju wanted to say, but he had a feeling Dongmyeong would keep coming up with reasons for self-degradation, and it was clear he didn’t want to make this into a pity party about himself. Instead, he looked down, and accepted the apology without words. Though, now that he’d mentioned Hyungu…

“So, how’d  _ he _ know about… about what was going on?”

Dongmyeong bit his lip.

“Apparently he can read minds, and it's, like, super special since it's his only Gift. It’s kind of how he knew Ravn-”

He paused, his eyes widening like he said something he shouldn’t have. Dongju reached out to his knee.

“Hey, it’s okay.”

“A-are you sure?”

“I mean, not completely okay yet, but I can talk about him. I’m not…”  _ Fragile _ , was what he wanted to say, but to say he wasn’t fragile would be a lie. Things… his heart still ached, like it’d burst if prodded in the wrong spot. He swallowed the lump in his throat. “I can handle it.”

Dongmyeong nodded, sighing before continuing.

“Yeah, so, he can read minds.”

“So why doesn’t he just...”

“Tell us what’s going on between your hyungs? I know, I asked, and he went on this whole spiel on how he left the team and how some people just don’t want to be helped or something.”

_ Or perhaps they’re just unable to ask _ . Dongju kept quiet. Dongmyeong shook his head.

“Seriously, I’ve never seen someone get so fired up at a question.”

“Congratulations on mostly having emotionally stable friends.”

Dongmyeong shoved Dongju, pouting as he laughed, though they quickly settled back down, the weight of the situation returning.

“So,” Dongmyeong started, “what’s  _ actually _ going on?”

“Couldn’t tell you,” Dongju said, grip tightening around Ryan’s arm. “No one really knows what’s going on, just that Leedo and Seoho hate each other for some reason that’s connected to…  _ him _ … They get along when he’s around, but he left and Leedo...”

He shook his head. The details were fuzzy, but the yelling from that day was distinctly in Leedo’s low, growling voice. Perhaps he had been right to be wary of him -- but the way he’d carried Dongju back to the dorm- there was more to it than simple animosity. 

“And there’s no point in trying to pry it out of everyone else,” Dongju added, a little more harsh, more final than he had intended. Clearly, no one wanted to talk, and there was no point in trying to fix things between people who didn’t want to communicate.

“Didn’t… did you say things got better when Ravn was around?” Dongmyeong asked. Dongju nodded.

“Yeah, why?”

“Couldn’t we just, I dunno, try and find him?”

“Yeah, but it only works for so long if you couldn’t tell.” Dongju scowled. Sure, Hyungu had lured him back, but Ravn only stayed for a few days before- before leaving again. If there was one thing he could remember from that night, it was the wolves, howling like they did every Wednesday. And Ravn had left, left him for those  _ stupid wolves _ .

Wait. That was it.

“Myeongie, you remember last week, yeah?”

Dongmyeong nodded, hesitantly, narrowing his eyes. He turned his head slightly away.

“What about it?”

“Remember how Ravn was like, attracted to the howling?”

“Okay first off, that’s a weird way of saying that, and second, I thought you just said finding Ravn wasn’t going to fix anything.”

“No, I said finding him would be a temporary fix. But listen, we might be able to kill two birds with one stone here.”

“Okay okay,” Dongmyeong whined, waving his hand. “I’m listening.”

Thoughts whizzed past faster than he could catch them. They were more fragments of words, caught in the wind by happenstance, yet Dongmyeong still listened to him as he half-planned, half-rambled. Spears and speakers. An excuse, likely to do with training, and a permanent solution. Finally, Dongju felt a smirk tugging at his lips. He leaned in, Dongmyeong did the same, and the words -- tired of being kicked around -- marched out.

“We’re gonna kill some wolves.”

He set Ryan, Simba, and Pepe aside when he woke up. It was Sunday, yet the dorm seemed abuzz with preparations of some kind -- most likely combat related if Leedo carrying the spears down the hallway was any indication. Wait, spears? Dongju jumped down from his bunk and whipped his head around the room. Keonhee was gone, and Hwanwoong was sound asleep on the bed, though it seemed he had at least gotten himself dressed in official Academy uniform. After squishing his cheeks a few times (with no response), Dongju bit his lip, and darted out the room.

“Ah! Morning Dongju!” Keonhee chirped from the kitchen table. Dongju waved, pressing himself against the wall as Leedo slipped past on his way back to his room before examining the scene. The spears were propped up against the doorway, precariously in the way of the actual door. What seemed like holsters, strapped to belts and buckles, lay in a messy pile on the couch, the unmistakable glow of runestones softly emanating through it all. He raised an eyebrow.

“What’s going on?”

“We didn’t tell you?” Keonhee asked, standing up to clean up his now finished breakfast. “We’re doing a bounty hunt in the city today.”

“Oh?”

“It’s just a light-eater, so don’t worry. We’ll be back by dinner.”

“Sounds good to me,” Dongju replied, trying to hold back the anxiety in his voice. Light-eaters were some of the more common monsters that terrorized the cities for precisely the reason anyone would think. While they rarely attacked people, it was certainly annoying to have to repair fallen streetlights and detour traffic due to broken traffic lights. He was certain his hyungs could handle one -- even in broad daylight -- but the more pressing issue at hand was the spears.  _ He needed them _ .

“Is something wrong?”

“Ah, not really,” Dongju said, the words tumbling into a lie quicker than he could think. “I was just thinking I should make up for the practice I missed for the past few days, y’know?”

Keonhee glanced between him and the spears before pointing at them.

“Do you need them?”

“I mean, not really. You guys probably need them more.” He sighed. “I dunno, I just haven’t found my Gift yet, and the evaluation’s in like a week, and so I was thinking I could try and practice with Runescribed weapons to make up for that.”

The lie was too detailed to be truthful, and Keonhee’s tilted head seemed to be catching onto that. Dongju dropped his shoulders, folded his arms, and pouted.

“What to do, what to do…”

“I think there’s some more Runescribed stuff in the dorm lockers if you wanna look there,” Keonhee said, wiping down his dishes. Dongju raised an eyebrow.

“Dorm lockers?”

“Did Ravn really not show you anything?” He shook his head, snorting. “That hyung really-”

“Okay, but the lockers?”

“Right! They’re out the back in a shed near the dumpsters. Our stuff’s in Unit 9.” Keonhee finished putting his stuff away, and gestured out the window, waving his hand toward the back. “There’s a lot of kinds of weapons there, but some of them might not work. Be sure to read the runes.” He furrowed his brow. “You  _ can _ read runes, right?”

Dongju scoffed.

“Wow, thanks for the confidence. Yes, I can. A little bit.”

“Yeah, that’s why,” Keonhee laughed. “I mean, yeah! You definitely got this! I believe in you and your literacy!” 

Dongju was about to tackle Keonhee and maybe bite his arm when Hwanwoong and Seoho emerged from the hallway, with Leedo following soon after. Seoho scanned the equipment, and nodded approvingly.

“Alright, are we ready?”

“I didn’t even eat breakfast,” Hwanwoong grumbled. Seoho clicked his tongue.

“Not my fault you chose sleep over food.”

“Xion,” Leedo began before they could squabble further, “we’ll pick up chicken on our way back, but if we get paid immediately, we’ll take you out for barbeque. Sound good?”

“Yup,” Dongju hummed. “Work hard so we can have lots of meat~”

Leedo’s face lit up, though Dongju looked away, unsure if Leedo would see his anxiety through his feigned friendliness. Instead he watched the rest of his team, all dressed in the Academy’s teal uniform, strap in their holsters and grab their spears, readying themselves for the upcoming task. With a few waves and farewells and another “work hard” from Dongju, they were off.

Dongju scrambled back to his room, rummaging through his sheets before finding his phone and dialing Dongmyeong’s number. Dongmyeong picked up quickly.

“Yes?” he cooed.

“Change of plans,” Dongju sputtered, “get everything ready and meet me in ten minutes.”

Dongmyeong sprinted to meet Dongju at the front of his dorm, hair sticking out and lip curled into a pout. He waved his speakers in the air.

“The things I do for you, Ju-ah!”

“I love you~”

“You better,” Dongmyeong said, huffing with his hands on his knees. He straightened out. “Right, so what’s the rush?”

“Good news or bad news?”

“Bad news.”

“Bad news is, the weapons we need are gone.”

“Aaaaand the good news?”

“My hyungs are gonna be gone all day so we’ll have more time, and there’s apparently another weapon stash in the back.”

Dongmyeong’s eyes widened, exclaiming, “really?!” as they started making their way toward the dumpsters. Sure enough, there was the shed that Dongju had never bothered to think about while taking out the garbage. Like the other buildings in their dorm complex, it seemed built into the landscape, with stone lining the base and turf making up the roof, the only indication of it being a building being the wooden posts forming a gateway. The doors -- also wood -- were carved with depictions of wolf-warriors raging against their enemies, ravens delivering victory in flight. They ran to the entrance, the carvings lit up upon Dongju presenting his student ID, and they ducked through the unlocked doors into the locker itself.

“Woah. Who knew?”

“Right?” Dongju muttered, unsure if the words actually formed. His eyes ran along the wall of weapons, some glinting in the now rising sun, others glowing of their own accord, humming with the same power he’d felt last week. He shook his head. Concentrate. He needed to look for the spot labeled 9.

Dongmyeong followed close after him as he scanned the surprisingly long hall, and, after finding Unit 9, as he scanned the unit's display wall for some weapon he knew how to use -- like a spear.

“Do you need help?”

“No, I got it,” Dongju assured him, passing him the single spear he’d managed to find. He leaned on the wall, steadying himself with his hands. Wait, what was this?

Directly in front of him, nestled atop two hooks jutting out the wall, was what looked like a handgun. He stepped back. Law dictated guns couldn’t be kept in private residences, but he guessed laws back at the city didn’t apply here at the Academy. Still, the sight was a little unnerving, yet, he couldn’t take his eyes off it.

It had a grip, a trigger, but what was supposed to be the barrel was replaced with a long, polished stone, inscribed with runes. The stone itself was encased in white-painted metal plating reminiscent of wings, the black leather-wrapped grip curling down in continuation of the shape. He brushed his fingers over the gold trims, squinting at the runes. He only recognized one:  _ Light _ .

“What’d you find?” Dongmyeong prodded, peeking over his shoulder. Dongju picked up the gun, turning it over in his hands.

“Dunno,” he replied before finding what looked like the holster, another, equally elegant work of white metal. The gun clicked in place as he slid it in. “Looks nice though.”

Dongmyeong narrowed his eyes.

“Do you even know how to shoot?”

“Yeah, I mean, no.” Dongju bit his lip. “But it can’t be that hard, right?”

“Right…”

Of course, he knew he was wrong, even if the dramas made it look so easy. He glanced at Dongmyeong’s spear in an effort to change the subject.

“What does your spear say?”

“Earth,” Dongmyeong said, face falling. Alright, like what was that supposed to do? They exchanged looks and shrugged. If anything, they could figure it out on the field.

Dongju ended up taking a normal shortsword from the wall in addition to the gun. Even if he’d never used a sword, it was basically like a big knife, which was pretty intuitive to use, right? Besides, if he was going to use the gun, he’d probably be using it point blank anyway -- might as well have a weapon made for close-quarters in that case. With the two of them armed and another glance between them, they made their way out of the lockers.

By then the morning sun had risen over the mountains, its rays still ramping up to full intensity for the afternoon. It was with its warmth at their back that they stared down the cold, winding grasp of the forest, not quite daring to step over the precipice into what was the most dangerous, reckless situation they’d been in since, well, they died. Dongmyeong tightened his grip around his spear.

“You… you still wanna do this?”

_ No _ , he wanted to scream. It was unlike him to take risks, and the very thought of stepping into the singing darkness, willingly, burned at his throat. Blood pounded in his ears, his chest. He could turn back now. He could just call this off, go back to chilling in the dorm and maybe watching that new musical he’d been looking forward to. But there were the sleepless nights spent pressing his pillow to his ears, the times he, Keonhee, and Hwanwoong blasted their dramas way too loudly in order to drown out the heavy silence between their hyungs.

And there was Ravn’s face: pale, gaunt.

“Yes.”

He had to do this, not just for himself, but for his  _ team _ .

“You owe me big time.”

“I know.”

They looked at each other, eyes shaking in anxiety and anticipation all the same. Yet hidden beneath it all was resolve -- at least, that’s what Dongju saw. He hoped he showed the same.

“Well, what are we waiting for then? Let’s go!”

And with that, they crossed into the writhing grip of the forest, side by side, like they were meant to be.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you for reading this!! hope you enjoyed!


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> cw // guns, fire, flashbacks  
> tw // death, violence  
> these are pretty much through the whole chapter, so read the notes at the end for the summary if you need!

Howling. The wolves actually responded to the recording. Dongmyeong quickly turned it off, and the two strained their ears to find the direction. East. They were coming from the east, further into the woods. They went straight away.

They had already trekked far into the woods when they first played the recording, not wanting Dongmyeong’s team at the dorm to panic immediately. It was by chance they had already been moving toward the wolves, a chance they saw as extremely lucky.

“Doesn’t it feel like we’re being watched?”

“What do you mean?” Dongju asked.

“I thought-” Dongmyeong started. He shook his head. “Nevermind. Keep going.”

Something darted through the trees. They moved to each other, weapons drawn, back to back, scanning the sky.

Rustling. Dongmyeong thrust his spear toward the bushes, but his grip slipped and the tip dug into the ground. Rocks erupted into the air -- along with the unmistakable, overly-dramatic scream of Keonhee.

“Oh my shut up Keonhya! We’re trained  _ warriors _ for God’s sake!”

“I’m sorry!”

“Woong? Keonhee?”

“Yeah yeah, surprise Dongdongie,” Hwanwoong snarked, pulling a sniffling Keonhee from the bushes. Something landed behind them. Dongmyeong’s eyes brightened.

“Harin!”

“Dongmyeong!” Harin grinned and caught Dongmyeong as he jumped into his arms. Hwanwoong finished helping Keonhee dust off and turned to Dongju with a scowl.

“Hey punk, what’re you up to?”

“Nothing.”

“You didn’t even get a special sword?” Keonhee said like he was slightly offended, pointing at the weapon in Dongju's hand. Dongju shrugged.

“Eh, didn’t feel like it.”

“But seriously, what are you thinking going out here by yourself!" Hwanwoong snapped, "Hyungu was panicking and then  _ we _ were panicking and like- just what are you doing?!”

“Hyungu knew?” Dongmyeong muttered. Harin tilted his head, looking at him with a furrowed brow, baffled.

“Why wouldn't he? You know how sensitive he is.”

Dongmyeong started to say something, but closed his mouth. His eyes darkened, thinking. Dongju swallowed the lump in his throat and felt it drop into his heart. They- he'd been selfish, hadn't he?

Hwanwoong turned Dongju to him by the shoulder.

“Right! Now what are you doing?”

“We were…" Dongju hesitated. There was no point in lying now, but that didn't stop the guilt clawing at his stomach. He hung his head. "We’re looking for the wolves.”

“But why?”

“Hey, calm down," Keonhee said, putting a hand on Hwanwoong's shoulder. The latter folded his arms and huffed.

“Fine.”

“I mean, they literally keep everyone up all night like that’s not a problem," Dongmyeong said, looking anywhere but at them. Dongju nodded.

“And I was thinking- I wanted to find Ravn-hyung, but the wolves keep dragging him back out here. If we kill them, he’d stay, right?”

Keonhee took his hand.

“Dongju-ah, I- I know where you’re coming from, but-” k

“You shouldn’t have come out here alone!”

“Woong.” Keonhee warned.

“Hwanwoong’s right," Harin said before Hwanwoong could launch into a tirade. He pushed Dongmyeong into standing straight, patting his back. "It’s too dangerous for just the two of you, especially if you’re looking for trouble. We should head back.”

“Wait, but there’s five of us now.”

All eyes turned to Dongmyeong. He was right. There was more than double the manpower now -- surely they'd be able to take down the wolves if they were all together. Dongju put on his best puppy-eyes, grabbing Keonhee's hand in earnest.

“Will you help us? Please?”

“Dongju…” Hwanwoong whined in a slightly chastising way. Keonhee, on the other hand, seemed to bounce between the options, biting his lip as the gears in his head whirred. Finally his grasp tightened.

“I-I’m in!”

“Keonhya?”

“I want Ravn back, Woong," he said with a sigh, weighed down by much more than Ravn's current disappearance. "Aren’t you sick of it too?"

Hwanwoong narrowed his eyes. Yet, the pricks in his countenance started to subside in waves, and what was once a glare broke into something deep, painful. The tension left his shoulders, and he sighed.

“Fine. I’m only coming along to make sure everything goes  _ right _ this time.”

“Harin?” Dongmyeong looked at his hyung. He shrugged.

“Eh, I’ll come too. Pretty sure Hyungu would strangle me if I came back without you.”

The five of them exchanged looks, nodded, and after Dongju gave Harin the sword he’d been carrying, they turned on the recording, and began tracking once again.

“So,” Dongju whispered, the silence more heavy than tense as they followed the howls, “why’s everyone so hung up over the wolves?”

Keonhee sucked in a breath, biting his lip again in thought. He leaned in closer.

“You… you promise not to talk about it, right?”

“Like that’s not what we’ve been doing for the past month.”

“H-hey, that kinda...”

“Sorry.”

“No, I should’ve been-” He sighed. “We should’ve been honest from the start.”

The two slowed down their pace, letting Hwanwoong, Harin, and Dongmyeong take the lead as they followed soon behind. Keonhee looked over his shoulder -- though logically, no one was there -- and took Dongju’s hand.

“Last year, our hyungs went to kill the wolves,” he began. “Hyungu had this really bad feeling about it, but they decided to go anyway, since they were fourth years and they thought they could handle it. But they came back and… they changed.”

“Oh.”

“Ravn started disappearing and Leedo wouldn’t talk to anyone. Seoho tried pretending everything was fine, but Hyungu kept having nightmares and he wouldn’t tell us why or what he saw. He and Harin left, and me and Woong…”

_ We were left alone. _

Dongju looked at Keonhee’s trembling lips, but not his quavering eyes -- he couldn’t. He gave Keonhee’s hand a squeeze.

“That’s… I’m sorry.”

Keonhee shook his head.

“No, I’m sorry. I’m sorry we couldn’t be better hyungs to you. You shouldn’t have to get dragged in like this.”

“No, it’s okay. We’re a team, remember?”

“Dongju…”

“H-hey! Cut it out!” Hwanwoong hissed, pointing further into the forest. “You hear that?”

The howling had stopped. They strained their ears, craning their necks over to where Hwanwoong was pointing. Softly, steps padded through the fallen twigs and branches, getting louder -- approaching. Dongju’s grip curled at the gun.

Golden eyes stared out from the darkness. Dongju cried.

“Get them!”

They darted away with a flick of the tail. The five of them lunged, pushing past tree and boulder, eyes glued to their quarry bounding through the forest with ease. His lungs burned -- blood rose to his tongue. Right as he was about to fall to his knees, Keonhee grabbed his arm and a new sensation gripped his chest as they  _ teleported _ from point to point. His stomach lurched. He barely caught sight of Dongmyeong in the trees with Harin and his wings outstretched.

“This way!” Hwanwoong called, blinking away. The trees seemed to be thinning out, Harin, carrying Dongmyeong, flying lower and lower as they did. They were fast -- yet no matter how fast they were, the wolf was just out of reach, tail teasing their efforts. And soon it disappeared.

The five collapsed on the ground, panting, cursing. Dongju groaned as he embraced the dirt, then slammed a fist into it. They were close. They were  _ so close _ .

“Who’s there?”

His head jerked up. That voice- it was familiar, its warmth unmistakable. The others looked around for the source -- a source easy to find in the clearing they found themselves in. In front of Dongju, in front of them all, stood a dark figure.

“Ravn-hyung?”

“You’re all here!” It  _ was _ Ravn, but the sight was- he was horrid. He waved his grime-ridden hands. “Come.”

An invisible force pulled Dongju up to his feet, and looking around it seemed like it had helped everyone else up too. The five bunched together, casting wary glances at the clearing. Hwanwoong spoke first.

“I don’t like this.”

“Me neither,” Keonhee said with a shiver.

“I don’t think any of us do,” Harin added, nodding. He patted Dongmyeong on the shoulder. “Stick with me, alright?”

“Dongju, you too. Stick with us,” Hwanwoong said. “If things go awry, we can bail you two out, understood?”

They nodded, and glued to their hyungs’ sides, followed after Ravn.

From the open sky, the sun revealed a series of stones, arranged in a horseshoe pattern facing the east. Dongju bent down to get a better look at some of the taller ones sticking up from the ground to see row after row of runes engraved into their surface, though it seemed none of them were active. Keonhee pulled him back up, tilted his head to the east side where Ravn was.

“Do you see that?”

“What do you-?”

Behind Ravn stood a massive boulder covered in runic scrawl. The lines and lines of runes formed an archway on the boulder’s flatside, facing them, with a final circle drawn right where Ravn’s head was -- a circle stained a dull, dark brown against the shining surface.

And there were two pedestals, upon which two black heaps sat atop.

They approached Ravn, who kept examining the runes without a care. Hwanwoong pointed at the heaps.

“Are those-?”

“Ravens,” Ravn said, as if it was simple fact. “They’ve been dead a long time, but their bodies haven’t decayed. Weird huh?”

More than weird. Dongju glanced over at Dongmyeong, everything in both of them reading unsettled. It didn’t seem like Ravn cared though -- he smiled instead, gesturing toward the runes inscribed overhead.

“Anyway, I’m pretty sure it has to do with the proximity to the Valkyrie. You see this formation? It’s like a gate, and the runes are the key in.”

“The Valkyrie?” Dongju muttered under his breath. Keonhee and Harin’s eyes widened. Hwanwoong pushed past them, marched over to Ravn, and stuck an angry finger to his chest.

“Hyung, we told you to stop talking about that. You’re not going to find Her.”

Ravn’s expression only steeled.

“She’s behind this gate, I know it.”

Hwanwoong would’ve clobbered Ravn right then and there if Keonhee hadn’t pulled him back. Ravn turned back to the runes.

“I  _ saw _ Her. She’s right there.”

But before he could continue his longing the pressure of the air changed, forcing their arms to their faces to shield their eyes from drying. Footsteps crunched in the dirt and twigs, and the wind soon subsided. Dongju lowered his arms, and his heart seized. It was Leedo and Seoho -- and from the ice in the latter’s eyes, he was beyond angry.

“Hwanwoong! Keonhee! I thought I told you to get Dongju out!”

Keonhee held Hwanwoong closer, Hwanwoong burying his face further into his chest. Keonhee himself looked down. From the corner of his eye, Harin slowly led Dongmyeong away, stepping back little by little. Dongju caught Leedo’s gaze -- something soft yet scared -- before Seoho turned to him.

“Dongju, what were you thinking, going out by yourself and putting Dongmyeong in danger too?”

“Sorry, hyung,” he mumbled. Seoho shook his head, and it was like icicles were being driven through Dongju. He knew sorry didn’t cut it -- but Seoho’s eyes were suddenly glued at his hip, or rather, the gun at his hip. A moment later, the ice in his stare shattered, and he pointed, slack-jawed, suddenly scrambling backward as Leedo and Ravn approached to catch him.

“Seoho! Leedo!” Ravn chirped. Seoho shook free of his trance, but not his shock, as his widened eyes turned to him.

“Ravn-  _ this _ is where you’ve been?”

“Youngjo… why?” But Ravn didn’t seem to hear Leedo’s question, and he rambled on.

“I’m so glad you’re here! She’s literally behind this gate- if only I could figure out these runes…”

“Youngjo-”

_ Youngjo. _ Was that his real name? Excitement oozed out of Youngjo like a child about to enter an amusement park.

“We’re so close. Ah, She’s so close! Aren’t you excited?”

Leedo stood, watching Youngjo as he turned back to the runes and ran his hands over the inactive words, the darkened circle in the center. Seoho sighed.

“Give it up, it’s no use.” He shook his head again. “He’s gone.”

Dongju joined Hwanwoong in Keonhee’s arms, and all they could do was watch as Leedo’s heart fell and shattered. Leedo’s eyes darted back and forth, searching for  _ something _ \-- something to gather them back, something to protect him from the stinging cold, the bitterness of those words-

Something changed. The pieces stirred from the ground. His stare darkened to a glare aimed right at the ice that had returned to Seoho.

“And who’s fault is it?”

Seoho stepped back. Hwanwoong looked up from his hiding place, head turning to and from Seoho and Leedo.

“Hyung, what’s going on? What happened?”

“Hey, Do-ya, what’s wrong?” Youngjo said, stepping over to light a hand on Leedo’s shoulder. Leedo threw it off, taking a threatening step toward Seoho.

“Who’s fault is it? Who’s fault is it he’s been left alone like this? Who’s fault is it we let him slip so far into obsession? Who’s fault is it we didn’t go looking for him because ‘we didn’t have time?’ “

“Stop, please stop...” Keonhee whispered, tears leaking from his eyes. Youngjo grabbed Leedo.

“Geonhak, why are you yelling at Seoho? I thought we were all friends-”

“Who’s fault is it Youngjo’s  _ dead? _ ”

Seoho. Their eyes turned to Seoho. For a moment he was still, frozen, brow furrowed. Leedo’s back rose and fell with his ragged breaths, his glare becoming ever more accusatory, ever more scorching. It caught Seoho -- and Seoho, realizing he had nowhere to run, nowhere to hide -- swallowed the roaring flames.

“I killed him.”

_ What? _

“I killed him. I shot him dead, shot him with that gun Dongju has, right here, right where we’re standing.” He swallowed, clenched his fists. “Is that what you want me to say?”

Leedo lowered his shoulders. The fire was gone. Seoho’s lip trembled.

“Is it?” 

“Seoho killed..?” Dongju didn’t dare finish the sentence. He felt Dongmyeong and Harin approach beside him, and grasped Dongmyeong’s hand as Harin pieced something together in his mind.

“That’s what Hyungu saw?”

“Hyung…” Hwanwoong said, breaking away from Keonhee to approach Seoho, his own voice breaking too. “Please say that isn’t true.”

Seoho looked down.

“I shouldn’t be here.”

“Don’t say that.” Ravn turned to Seoho, reaching for his hand. “You belong with us. You’re my friend. You’re our friend.”

“No. No, I’m not.”

He shook away his hand, stepped back, back from Ravn, from Leedo, from everyone. His arms grasped his shoulders, caving in on itself, and suddenly he seemed so small -- so  _ vulnerable _ .

“I wronged you. I  _ killed _ you. I wronged you, Geonhak, everyone here and then had the gall to act like everything was fine, like nothing happened because you didn’t want- because I didn’t want-”

He paused, and shivered, and his gaze melted further and further into the ground. 

“Because it was easier that way.”

“Seoho…”

“You were right, Geonhak.” Seoho laughed. He threw his head back and laughed, staring at Leedo. “You were  _ right _ . Why should you trust me when I can’t even trust myself?”

_ Geonhak _ . The name -- coming from  _ him _ \-- pricked Leedo, sent him back, away from Seoho, just like Seoho wanted.

Laughter -- laughter dying into silence, unbearable silence. Silence. Silence...

“Why can’t you be like Geonhak?” though it wasn’t to anyone. “Why can’t you be angry at me? Why can’t you hate me?”

The wind carried it past Ravn, to  _ Youngjo _ . Seoho hung his head.

“Why can’t you hate me?”

Youngjo walked beside him, smiling, and took his hand.

“Because you’re my friend.”

It… it was those words. It was those words that sent the glacier cascading into the frozen wasteland, breaking, shattering. The last fell away -- the tears from too many fights, too many restless nights -- they fell drop by drop. And Youngjo,  _ Geonhak, _ caught him before he fell too.

“I’m sorry.”

“Gunminie…”

“I’m sorry, Geonhak. I’m sorry.”

...

“That’s all you had to say.”

“Geonhakkie. I’m-”

“I know. I know.”

“I don’t understand,” Hwanwoong muttered, leaning on Keonhee’s shoulder. Keonhee rubbed his arm.

“I don't think any of us do.”

“You don’t have to, right now.” Harin said, pulling Dongmyeong closer with an grunt from the younger. Dongju winced as his arm was pulled along.

“Ju-ah.”

“Yeah?”

Dongmyeong squeezed his hand.

“Are you okay?”

“Depends on your definition of ‘okay,’ ” Dongju replied, turning away. Compartmentalize, compartmentalize- Dongmyeong snickered, obviously trying not to cry too.

“You punk.”

Howling. 

Keonhee, Hwanwoong, Harin, and Dongmyeong grabbed their weapons. Dongju reached for the gun at his hip -- but it felt heavier than it had before. Seoho and Geonhak perked up, not even bothering to wipe the residue from their cheeks as their eyes frantically searched the area. Youngjo raised an eyebrow as if wondering just why everyone was so panicked.

Two wolves leapt from the foliage -- teeth bared, haunches ready to pounce. And they were  _ big _ . Even on all-fours, their shoulders probably could have reached Dongju’s chest. Maybe this had been an incredibly bad idea after all.

“Um, guys?”

Harin sprouted his wings.

“Run.”

Dongmyeong yelped as Harin grabbed him and blasted into the sky. Hwanwoong pushed away from Keonhee, waving his hand.

“Get Dongju away! I’ll take Seoho!”

Dongju barely had time to protest before Keonhee yanked him into hyperspeed -- but in those split seconds, he saw Geonhak prying Youngjo away, taking to the air as Youngjo reached once again for the wolves.

Dongju fell to his knees as soon as they landed outside the dorms. His stomach was doing flips at the speed that he shouldn’t have survived -- and probably wouldn’t have survived without Keonhee. The world just wouldn’t sit still  _ goddamnit _ . Harin and Dongmyeong, then Hwanwoong and Seoho, and finally Geonhak and Youngjo made it to the courtyard, and immediately his hyungs shoved Youngjo into the dorms. With a slam of the door, the only ones left in the courtyard were him, Harin, and Dongmyeong. Dongmyeong held out a hand, which Dongju gratefully took.

He’d only just stabilized himself on Dongmyeong’s shoulder when Giwook came running from his dorm with an obviously disappointed look on his face. Dongju wouldn’t go so far to say that he was pouting, but he was definitely close.

“Myeong, why didn’t you just tell me you were fighting wolves?” he huffed. “I would’ve come along.”

“Aww baby Giwook wants to fight wolves?” Dongmyeong cooed, puckering his lips. Giwook groaned, shoving him  _ gently _ so as to not disturb a still recovering Dongju. Hyungu came into view, arms folded over his chest.

“That would’ve been a definite  _ no _ from me,” Hyungu said with a glare. He turned to Dongju. “Now you-”

“I know, what I did was incredibly dangerous, reckless, and above all, selfish,” he grumbled, letting the words tumble out of his mouth. He looked at Hyungu with a smirk, even though the world still spun. “But hey, we got Youngjo back.”

“Young...jo?”

Harin set a hand on Hyungu’s shoulder. Whatever focus had been pinned by anger vanished from Hyungu.

“Y-yes, Harinie?”

“We know…” he said. Harin, already so warm and soft, somehow became more-so. His grip tightened on Hyungu. “You’re not the only one who has to go through this now.”

Hyungu stared. He narrowed his eyes,  _ what do you mean, _ they asked.

Then they widened -- something clicked -- and with a deep breath of relief, Hyungu sunk into Harin’s chest, resting, just resting.

Giwook furrowed a brow, looking to Dongju and Dongmyeong for answers.  _ Later _ , they said. For now, their faces told, they should just rest.

The next few days were awkward for sure, with no one being certain how to approach Seoho now that they found out that, well, he’d killed Youngjo. The words still didn’t quite sit right -- it was no wonder Leedo- no, Geonhak had been so up in arms for so long. He still was tense around Seoho (who markedly didn’t want to be called Gunmin. “He died that night too.”), flinching everytime he approached, his careful eyes watching every move, instinctually, ready to jump at a moment’s notice to protect the others. Seoho accepted it gracefully, oddly content with the cold. He may have been held at arm’s length away at all times, yet without those secrets making his facade, he felt closer than ever. Full of contradictions as always.

Maybe things weren’t  _ all _ right, but things were starting to be alright.

But Dongju didn’t have time to think about that with the combat evaluation now a week away. The nerves ate away at him, and he barely felt a thing as his spear bounced off the spike of glittering light Youngjo had summoned before he could hit him. Only moments later did his arms feel the reverberating sting from the force as he tried to get back to his feet. Youngjo smiled, hand outstretched.

“Getting better. You’ve really improved.”

“Since when?” Dongju asked, curious as to when Youngjo had seen him train. Youngjo shrugged, smile extending to a grin.

“Does it matter?”

Wednesday night, they managed to lock Youngjo in his room with Seoho and Geonhak keeping watch over him. His cries shook the walls. Keonhee, Hwanwoong, and Dongju turned the volume up on their drama.

The week whizzed past under a flurry of schoolwork, pranks pulled after Dongmyeong discovered his Gift: Illusion (which Giwook quickly foiled with his own Gift: Discernment), and late night training sessions with Keonhee and Hwanwoong, the latter who insisted it was for Dongju’s good no matter how much Dongju complained. At least Geonhak was always up by the time they got back, always with a hot meal ready for them.

“You don’t have to,” Dongju had mumbled after the first few times. Geonhak had shook his head as he washed his equipment.

“You’re working hard, I got nothing better to do.”

Seoho looked up from whatever textbook he was studying -- human anatomy that night -- and chuckled, glancing at Geonhak.

“Such a tsundere~”

“Shut up.”

At least Keonhee and Hwanwoong seemed to enjoy it.

When Dongju was done with his food, and later his homework, he’d sneak over to Youngjo’s room and ask him for help with his new, ingenious idea, and Youngjo would smile and help him, patiently as always.

The last Wednesday of the month, at precisely 5:00 pm, Dongju sat on the bench, next to Dongmyeong and Giwook, as they waited with shaking knees to get called up for their combat evaluation. Well, Dongju’s knees were shaking. Dongmyeong and Giwook seemed to be handling the nervousness a little better, having been idol trainees for a year -- that is, until Dongmyeong let out the longest groan Dongju ever heard in his life.

“The suspense is killing me!”

“Wow, must be especially painful,” Giwook snarked. Dongju smiled, and they fistbumped as Dongmyeong humph-d, turning away in mock contempt. Before long, the three burst out in laughter.

“Son Xion. Please make your way to Plot 1.”

Dongju jumped to his feet, swiping his spear off the bench and ran a finger through the slips of paper in his back pocket as he walked to the designated plot for his evaluation. He hoped he could remember the order he’d put them in.

He took his place on one side of the training plot and shook his hands, jumping up and down, anything to loosen up. On the other side, a cage levitated to the ground, courtesy of Seoho. Right, his hyungs would be here to watch. He looked over to the other plots to see Dongmyeong and Giwook taking their spots on the plots beside his, Youngjo setting down identical cages with his own telekinesis. Hyungu and Harin caught the corner of his eye. He waved, and they waved back.

“First years of the Bifrost Dorms: get in ready position.”

His grip tightened around his spear as he crouched, bracing his legs. The cage rattled, whatever in it eager to get out.

“Einherjar, are you ready?”

Dongju clenched his jaw.

“Begin!”

The doors swung open and out emerged a wolf-like light-eater flailing blindly in the evening sun. Dongju held his breath, crept to the side. Don’t make a noise, don’t make a noise.

Its head snapped toward him. A shriek. Dongju thrust his spear. It pounced straight into the tip, whimpering at the pain. Dongju twisted his body, throwing the light-eater aside as it slipped off the spear. He dashed away, ripping out a paper from his pocket. Earth.

Another shriek. Dongju briefly glanced toward Dongmyeong’s plot. It didn’t seem good-

He screamed and fell back, the light-eater’s claws grazing his shoulder. He slammed the paper on the ground between his legs, staggering back to his feet as the dirt erupted before him. The light-eater howled.

His spear. Where was his spear?! He pulled out another slip -- earth again -- and threw it to the ground again as the light-eater approached, grasping at the dust for his spear. There it was!

Dongju darted, swiping the spear from the ground and pulling another card: wind. He raised it to the sky. The paper disintegrated between his fingers, and the wind roared, circling around him, deafening. The light-eater snapped blindly at the air. Dongju rode the current as he ran, ducking under the monster’s maul and sticking a paper at the tip of his spear as he found its back.

He lunged.

The spear ran clean through the light-eater and pinned it to the ground. Dongju let go and sprinted away, counting seconds before-

Wind erupted from the spear, tearing the light-eater into pieces. With a whistle, it died down, faded into a faint breeze. Dongju swallowed and looked away. He did not want to see what was left.

“Son Xion has completed his trial by combat and may now exit the combat area.”

He did it? He did it! He could barely register his legs carrying him to the fence and jumped over it probably in a really cool way as his hyungs ran to him, Hwanwoong and Keonhee at the forefront swarming him.

“Dongju! That was so cool!” Keonhee sang.

“R-really?”

“You sure have a thing for theatrics!” Hwanwoong teased. “Hey Youngjo, looks like you got competition!”

Youngjo snorted, folding his arms as Dongju pressed a finger to Hwanwoong’s chest.

“Looks like  _ you _ got competition, fairy.”

“Poor light-eater never stood a chance,” Seoho sighed, hand holding his cheek in thought. Geonhak scoffed, though softened considerably as he turned to Dongju.

“Well, that  _ was _ some incredible rune work. Nicely done.”

Dongju felt his cheeks flush.

“Thanks, hyung. Youngjo helped me.”

“It was your work,” Youngjo hummed, “Well done.”

“But did you see how the light-eater was about to pounce on him and then boom! The dirt exploded and it flew-”

“We saw, Keonhya.”

“Wow, thanks for ruining my fun, Woong.”

Dongju turned back, watching Dongmyeong and Giwook dart around, slowly whittling away the light-eater. Dongmyeong landed a hit to the neck, the light-eater fell down limp, and Dongju couldn’t help but grin as Dongmyeong screamed in victory and bounded back toward his team, illusionary fireworks following in his wake.

“You should probably clean up,” Geonhak said, snapping Dongju’s attention away from Giwook’s final blow. “There’s still two more rounds, and I doubt you wanna watch covered in dust.”

“Thanks dad.”

And Dongju smirked as he ran to the locker rooms, leaving his hyungs laughing at Geonhak’s flustered expense.

“Kim Ravn, Lee Seoho, and Kim Leedo have completed their trial by combat and may now exit the combat area.”

They erupted in cheers and swarmed their hyungs as they landed back down outside the training plot, all grins as Keonhee, Hwanwoong, and Harin showered them with their congratulations song, and soon Dongju and Dongmyeong, Hyungu and Giwook couldn’t help but whoop along. Seoho somehow slipped out from the center of them, laughing as Geonhak tried to get everyone off only to get pulled back in by Youngjo. After another attempt at fighting everyone off, Geonhak sighed, and laughed along.

“Well, you all know what this means,” Youngjo began. Dongju, Dongmyeong, and Giwook exchanged looks before Keonhee excitedly exclaimed the answer.

“Barbeque!”

“We don’t even have to spend our bounty money this time!” Hwanwoong laughed.

“You sure you can feed three more mouths?” Harin joked, earning jabs from all three first years. Youngjo grinned.

“Anything for my dongsaengs.”

And so they went to barbeque, the ten of them, letting Geonhak and Harin grill the meat -- because they were the best at it -- and making lettuce wraps for each other while Dongmyeong carefully monitored what touched the shellfish even though Dongju didn’t really care about having an allergic reaction and just laughing all the while. It was way too late when they finally stumbled out, laughing still but this time with the threat of keeling over with food, but did that stop them? No. And they were still laughing, smiling as the guys who could fly or teleport transported everyone back to the Gate, back to the Academy, back to the dorms.

Back to the dorms, around the time the wolves would begin howling, and Dongju and his team watched Youngjo’s every move. Geonhak grabbed his arm.

“Hyung. Let’s go inside. It’s late.”

“I…”

“Geonhakkie’s right, we should go,” Seoho added.

“I wanna talk to Dongju,” Youngjo sputtered out, “privately.”

Everyone was taken aback, even Dongju as he pointed to himself. Why him? He hadn’t done anything wrong, had he? Youngjo waved everyone back into the dorm, and after the four of them exchanged glances, they went inside, peeking over their shoulders as they did. Dongju swore they were peeking through the window too.

“Dongju-ah.”

“Yeah?”

“There’s something I’m curious about.” He took a step closer “About you.”

Youngjo would never mean harm -- that much Dongju knew -- but there was something in the way his words dripped that unsettled him. Dongju leaned back.

“Well what is it?”

“You spoke with the Valkyrie, didn’t you?”

“How did you-?”

“Hyungu isn’t the only one with the Gift of Perception, though, his is probably one of the stronger cases,” Youngjo hummed. He looked at the ground. “I… I didn’t mean to pry, but I saw some of your memories when you found me last week.”

“O-oh.”

“Don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone about it,” he quickly added. “But you spoke with Her, right?”

“Yeah, I did,” Dongju said, taking a step instead. “What- why do you ask?”

Youngjo’s eyes lit up.

“What was it like? How did it happen?”

“I mean…” Dongju stammered, “I saw Her Light, like everyone else, and then She just started… speaking to me.”

_ Why did she speak to you? _

_ Dongmyeong was gone, he’d left them, but they didn’t have time to think of that. They had to get the others out, they couldn’t let Dongmyeong’s sacrifice go to waste. Giwook fell, the trainee he was carrying falling atop his already weakened body. He couldn’t even lift his head to tell him the words he already knew were spoken. Go. Save yourself. Dongju took the trainee, blinking away the soot in his eyes, as he continued further, further, closer to the exit. _

“I think…”

_ What do you desire? _

_ Please. Tell me Giwook, Dongmyeong got out alive. _

_ They were among the fallen. _

_ Save them, please. _

_ They were not selected. _

_ No, please, please, save them. _

_ Would you give your life for them? _

_ Yes, anything, please, just save them. _

_ So I see. _

_ The embers scorched his eyes, his throat, and tore away at his being. He couldn’t scream. It was empty, so empty, dark, cold. Yet, in the cavity filled only with ash lay buried a new name, a new purpose. _

“I don’t wanna talk about it.”

“No worries, I… understand,” Youngjo whispered. Like a child who knew he’d done wrong, he wouldn’t look him in the eye. Dongju shook away the smoke clinging to his skin.

“But why do you wanna know?”

He shuffled his feet.

“Will you… would you believe me if I told you I saw the Valkyrie?”

Right. The clearing, the runes, how upset Hwanwoong had gotten. No one had ever seen Her, only Her Light, yet considering his own experiences, seeing her wasn’t such a far-fetched progression to make. He shrugged.

“I mean, I can’t say what you did and didn’t see.”

Youngjo grinned, and for a moment, Dongju was afraid he’d see the obsession return, but all that came was warmth: his warmth. He took Dongju’s hands, ran a thumb over his fingers.

“When I saw Her, She gave me something incredibly _ special. _ ” The words came breathlessly. Youngjo looked him in the eye. “I see the same in you. It’s not quite like mine, but it is special nonetheless.”

“Do you mean my name?”

He chuckled, his thumb stilling over his knuckles.

“Your name  _ and _ your Gift, Xion.”

Dongju pulled away. There was the name, a distant feeling -- but more importantly, how did he know what his Gift was when he himself didn’t even know?

“I can see other’s Gifts, but yours isn’t one I can,” Youngjo answered, and it was only then Dongju felt the prodding at his mind, a sign he was reading his thoughts. “It’s part of why I can do what I can do. It’s why Seoho can fly.”

“What do you mean?” Dongju asked, narrowing his eyes. Youngjo smiled.

“I can give people Gifts. Would you like one?”

_ Would I like a Gift? _ Of… of course he’d want one, it’d be one less thing to worry about, one more thing he could be useful for. But it felt like cheating. Dongmyeong and Giwook had worked for their Gifts, training hard and having them manifest naturally. Then again, Dongju was doing the same exact training, and his own Gift hadn’t even manifested yet…

And there was something in Youngjo, something begging, pleading.  _ Please. Take it. Take this away from me  _ \-- and Dongju would do anything to take it away.

“What Gifts can I get?”

“Anything you want,” he purred. “You’re a special case. Normally people only have a few possible choices, but you… your experience must have changed that.”

His experience with the Valkyrie… right… He blinked away the thought. What did the team need? It already seemed like his hyungs had everything covered in terms of Gifts. He really could just choose anything he wanted. So what did he want?

He remembered Youngjo fighting the giant serpent, solidified light forming a glittering carapace over his skin. He’d seen Hwanwoong use Piercing Light to form walls and barricades, and that seemed like the most common way of using it, but after watching Youngjo, he wondered just what else he could create with light materialized.

“Piercing Light. I’ll have Piercing Light.”

Youngjo nodded, and held out his hands.

“Come here.”

Dongju walked over to him, set his own hands in his hyung’s. His shoulders tensed. Please say it wouldn’t be like the first time, please say he wouldn’t get burned-

Light. A raven flew past, a single feather left in its wake. He reached out.

When the wolves began to howl, there was no screaming to accompany it. There were only smiles, and a hand on his shoulder pulling him close as they made their way inside.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> summary:  
> Dongju finds out that the hyung line tried to kill the wolves too last year and failed. Everyone finds out that Seoho killed Youngjo, explaining Geonhak's animosity toward him. They mostly forgive each other, but it's still awkward. Dongju passes his combat evaluation and goes out for barbeque with everyone. He and Youngjo talk about Dongju speaking to the Valkyrie, and Youngjo seeing the Valkyrie, which normally doesn't happen. Youngjo reveals his secret Gift: the ability to give others Gifts. Dongju receives the Gift of Piercing Light.
> 
> GOODNESS I finished this so fast after midterms it's not even funny. Thank you for reading this! It's an unbeta'd mess, but I hope you enjoyed!

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading through it all! Special thanks to my friend @yuiyua_ on Instagram for beta-ing the first chapter. But yeah, college has started for me, so updates may be infrequent. Thank you again for checking this out, I hope you enjoyed!


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